The No. 10 women’s hockey team is up to a four-game winning streak after a weekend away from Ithaca. The Red (4-2, 4-0 ECAC Hockey) first played a shutout game against Union (2-8, 0-3) with a score of 4-0 on Friday, followed by a 3-1 victory over Rensselaer (3-6-3, 1-2-1) the next day.

Friday afternoon witnessed the second shutout of the season for sophomore goalkeeper Amanda Mazzotta (third in her career) as she blocked all 11 shots that the Dutchwomen took. Senior forward Melanie Jue scored the first goal for the Red on a power play just under six minutes into the game, with an assist from senior forward Laura Danforth. Danforth went on to score another goal a minute and a half later with help from sophomore forward Kendice Ogilvie, and added another tally on the board after a scoreless and penalty-free second period. Junior forward Hayley Hughes finished the game off with assists from the twins Amber and Karlee Overguard.

“One of the biggest battles against Union was playing up to our own standards and not playing down to the other team’s,” said senior forward Kelly McGinty. “In the end we got it done, but we definitely had some trouble during the first period.”

Saturday’s match saw aggressive game play as sophomore forward Chelsea Karpenko helped the Red get on the board during the first period power play against the Engineers. Hughes made the second point with under a minute remaining in the second period with an assist from freshman Lauriane Rougeau, right before RPI’s Laura Gersten scored a goal on Mazzotta with four seconds left. The score was capped off with another assist from Rougeau a little over seven minutes in the third, as she fed the puck to sophomore Catherine White.Steel trap: Sophomore goalie Amanda Mazotta earned another shutout against Union on Friday.

“The game against RPI was a really big test for us because they were a team we needed to beat to stay on top of the ECAC,” McGinty said. “It was a major accomplishment for us mentally to get that game out of the way and to win it — this will help us going into this coming weekend to battle for the top against Clarkson.”

Though McGinty feels that the team could have played better, the Red still accomplished what it needed to in order to win both games this weekend.

“A big thing is that we stuck to our game plan even when things weren’t quite going our way. We just battled through and hoped that it would work out in the end, which it did,” Karpenko said.

Karpenko mentioned that the game plan has been focusing on the offense, as the Red has emphasized playing quickly and physically. The team has also been working on its transition games and bettering its play in front of both nets.

Going into last weekend, the Red had high expectations for the other teams and played to these expectations. It tried to not let anticipation of the game against No. 5 Clarkson to get in the way, and succeeded. Now that the Union and RPI matchups have passed, though, the energy is only growing.

The game this weekend will be a battle for the top spot in the ECAC Hockey league as Clarkson (11-1-1, 5-0-0) comes to Lynah Rink Friday night at 7 p.m.